4 Great Egyptian Opera Singers You Should Know About
By: Pamela Dimitrova/ Arab America Contributing Writer
Since opera singing was first introduced to Egypt in 1869, a tangible increase in popularity for opera was witnessed in Egypt. Yet it never gained popularity within the mainstream Egyptian culture and many of its great talents remain. Here are 4 Egyptian opera singers, that you should know about!
Naveen Allouba
Naveen began her music studies at the age of eight with Olga Yassa, the prominent Egyptian piano professor. Later, she graduated from the Cairo Conservatoire with piano honors and received scholarships from the DAAD (West German Cultural Exchange) and the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung which enabled her to study Opera Performance and Vocal Pedagogy at the Hannover Hochschule fur Music and Theater, where she obtained her Doctorate in 1988. She was a soloist at the Detmold Opera House in Germany and has performed since in most west European capitals and Arab countries, before moving to the Cairo Opera House as a Soprano Soloist. She was the first female voice to sing at the opening of the New Cairo Opera House in 1988.
She was a member of various national and international jury panels, including The Annual Cairo International Singing Competition of Fidov, The Deutsche Jugend Musiziert Wettbewerb, The Fullbright Scholarship Panel, The Egyptian Supreme Council Opera Competition, The National Jazz Competition of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the renowned Lebanese Television Competition “Sot El Fann” and lately the “Sing Egyptian Women” Competition. She is a frequent guest on Radio and Television programs.
She performed live and recorded the world premieres of “Le Nozze Di Figaro” and “Don Giovanni” Arabic Productions and also sang the premieres of “Opera Miramar” and “Three Operas in One Hour”.
Fatma Said
When she was fourteen years old, soprano Fatma Said took her first singing lesson, embarking on a musical journey that would take her from her home in Cairo, a city with only a limited opera scene, to the hallowed boards of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala and selection as one of BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists in 2016.
After receiving her Bachelor of Music from the prestigious Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin in 2013, Said was awarded a scholarship to study at the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala in Milan, becoming the first Egyptian soprano to perform on that iconic stage. During her time at the academy, she sang the title role of Pamina in a critically acclaimed new production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, directed by Peter Stein and conducted by Adam Fischer. She was hailed by critics as one of the world’s most promising young singers, with the influential Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung saying of her, “The flawless, radiant Fatma Said as Pamina is a discovery.”
Said has won several major singing competitions including the 8th Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition (Dublin, 2016), the 7th Leyla Gencer International Opera Competition (Istanbul, 2012), second prize at the 16th International Robert Schumann Lied Competition (Zwickau, 2012) and the Grand Prix at the 1st Giulio Perotti International Opera Competition (Germany, 2011).
Nabila Erian
One of the greatest 4 Egyptian opera singers ever, without a doubt, is Nabila Erian. After graduating from the Angelican British School, she enrolled in the first class of the Cairo Conservatoire for music, which opened in 1958. Her musical journey as a professional opera singer started in 1960. She was the first Egyptian to sing La Traviata at the Cairo Opera House in 1964 and was the youngest soprano to play the role of Violetta.
She was the first Egyptian soprano to sing a translated international opera in Arabic. She also sang the first-ever Arabic Opera Anas el-Wugood, based on the One Thousand and One Nights stories in 1994.
Erian obtained her PhD in Coptic music from the University of Maryland in 1986. Erian taught at the Cairo Conservatoire, part of Egypt’s Academy of Arts, as a professor of vocal sciences. She was also the Director of the Cairo Opera Company and the Associate Dean of the Cairo Conservatoire.
In 1964, she received an award from Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser at Eid al-Ilm (Science Festival), a few months after her performance in La Traviata. She was the second Egyptian singer to receive this award after Umm Kalthum.
Gala El Hadidi
Born in Cairo, Gala first attended the German school before she studied Philosophy, English and Comparative Literature at the American University in Cairo.
In school, Gala had joined the choir. At the age of 15, she participated in a voice competition in Turkey for German schools’ students. In Turkey, her family discovered her opera singing talent. After the competition, she joined the Cairo Opera House’s Talent Development Center, and sang in Egypt’s dubbed Disney movies as well as in small concerts at the Cairo Opera House. In September 2001, at the age of 18, she signed a contract as a soloist with the Cairo Opera House, becoming their youngest singer.
In 2005 she received a scholarship study at the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart. She also attended the Savonlinna Music Academy in Finland and received her Master’s from Yale University.
In 2008, she was awarded an outstanding achievement prize and recognition by Egypt’s Ministry of Culture. In 2010, she received the Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, New England Regionals.
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